East Oakland corner stores take a healthy turn

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Josephine Radbill, of Mandela MarketPlace, stocks the refrigerated case at Rowaid Market, one of the three East Oakland corner stores now emphasizing fresh produce and healthy food options. (Photo by Paul Kuroda)

More than 300 cases of them were sold this year at seven corner stores connected to a growing network that have agreed to sell more fresh food rather than merely serve as a convenient neighborhood source for alcohol and tobacco.

Last year, the six stores then enrolled in the Healthy Retail Network program coordinated by West Oakland’s Mandela MarketPlace sold 120 cases of bananas.

A seventh store joined the network earlier this year and now, with the addition of three East Oakland stores this month, there are 10.

Mandela MarketPlace, working with the Alameda County Public Health Department, added Rowaid Market, at 2123 90th Ave., Harry Drive In at 9002 MacArthur Blvd. and 7 Amigos at 8135 Bancroft Ave.

Customers can expect to see twice-weekly deliveries of greens that Mandela MarketPlace buys from Salinas Valley farms: herbs, celery, green onions, two types of kale, cabbage, shallots and carrots, plus several varieties of potatoes, onions and other produce depending on the season. Pomegranates are in now.

“We’re really lucky in the Bay Area because of our growing climate,” Trisha Chakrabarti, Mandela program and policy manager, said at Rowaid when the changeover got underway on Dec. 14.

Mandela MarketPlace surveys customers to determine their wants, she said. During planting season, it also coordinates with “an amazing group of farmers from different communities that know what their neighbors would like to buy.”

“We rely on them a lot,” Chakrabarti said. In the bargain, the arrangement provides the growers — mostly farmers of color working plots of 25 acres or less, she said — a guaranteed market. Mandela also works with the growers to encourage sustainable agricultural practices, she said.

Bananas, of course, are not locally grown. Not everything consumers expect can be, Chakrabarti said, pointing to avocados from Mexico and apples from Washington state, along with the Ecuadoran bananas in the Rowaid refrigerated case.

In addition to delivering tailored shipments of produce, the Healthy Retail Network program helps shopkeepers highlight other wholesome fare, too, such as whole-grain breads and tortillas; dairy products; nutritious snacks; proteins such as meat, eggs, beans and peas; and canned or frozen fruits and vegetables.

The program works with merchants on stores’ layouts to promote healthy choices and tone down advertising for alcohol and tobacco products, relocating them to less prominent display areas.

The program also features food and cooking demonstrations and sampling each month outside the stores.

With its West Oakland warehouse, Mandela MarketPlace is able to offer stores economies of scale, splitting cases of goods between several stores, Chakrabarti said. Mandela’s delivery system spares store owners the need to visit produce terminals or farmers markets.

This year, more than 72,000 pieces of produce were sold at the seven participating stores, split among 38 varieties of seasonal fruits and vegetables throughout the year, Mandela’s Josephine Radbill said in an email.

Mandela MarketPlace stocks at least 15 varieties of produce at each store.

The neighborhoods with Healthy Retail Network sites have been largely abandoned by the grocery markets that more affluent communities may take for granted.

In West Oakland, the rate of diabetes is three times the national average, according to the county public health department. A third of households do not have access to cars.

In 2000, the number of food stores was less than one per thousand residents, half what it had been in 1950, according to Mandela MarketPlace. But there was a liquor store for every 300 people.

There are now four Healthy Retail Network sites in West Oakland, in addition to Mandela’s co-op grocery store on Seventh Street across from the West Oakland BART station. They are: Bottles Liquor at 1150 Market St., Millennium Market, 1741 Market St.; N&A Market, 3147 Adeline St.; and Sav-Mor at 1333 Peralta St.

The stores’ transformations, begun in July 2013, are funded with money from the county’s Measure A, a sales tax that pays for health services for low-income residents.

Mandela MarketPlace gets a $1,200 annual grant from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Promotion for marketing, art design and printing needs, some of which pays for Heathy Retail Network marketing efforts.